Microsoft acquires iOS music player app Groove for iOS app

Tech giant, Microsoft has acquired Groove music player app for iOS app. While, the price detail of the deal is still not disclosed by the company. After the acquisition, the Groove app is no longer available for download.

Developed by a Montreal-based startup called Zikera, Groove app is a smart music player app which offers personalized playlists with the help of machine learning. The users who already have the app, will not receive any further update for it.

Speaking of the acquisition, Zikera in its official blog said, “Our journey started back in the days of the iPod. While it was a thing of beauty, we still struggled to choose what to play from our beloved music collection. From that instant, we envisioned a music player so intelligent that learns our tastes and habits to play the right music at the right time. Then Groove was born, and you made it a success. We are incredibly proud to have delighted you with a rich mobile experience and countless hours of music bliss through the tens of millions of personalized playlists we generated.”

While prior to this Microsoft also acquired the popular third party app Swiftkey earlier this monrh. The amount of the deal is not disclosed, but as per a report by Financial Times, it amounts to $250 million. The Swiftkey keyboard app was launched in 2008 and is installed on 300 million mobile devices and has support for 89 languages. It specializes in predictive typing which is said to be powered by artificial intelligence.

Microsoft is working towards increasing the market share of Windows Phone devices, and this move will enable the company to improve the input methods on Windows Phone devices.